Lobbying world starting to wake up to the NDP

Robin MacLachlan is the face of a new breed in Ottawa: NDP corporate lobbyist.

The former NDP staffer works the phones on behalf of 11 clients – including large companies such as Cisco Systems, Nalcor Energy and Nestlé Canada Inc. – and increasingly pops up on political talk shows as an NDP supporter.

He prefers to say he’s in the “government relations” business.

“The word lobbyist has taken on a bit of a pejorative character to it, so for that I may get the odd joke from my social democratic friends, but it’s all in good humour,” said Mr. MacLachlan, 30, who worked for successive Ottawa Centre NDP MPs Ed Broadbent and Paul Dewar.

“Advocacy is a very important part of democracy … and my friends understand that I’m contributing to that process,” he said.

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